Being an athlete in college (for me, a rower) is hard enough but I find trying to maintain a raw food diet while being a college athlete extremely difficult. Not only do coaches not understand why someone would choose to eat raw food but team pasta dinners and eating out make it really difficult. Does anyone have any advice about how to maintain a raw food diet while being an athlete? I find that I slip from eating raw food to carb loading on pasta, eating less vegetables, or consuming one too many cookies etc. because the coaches insist that carbs. found in pasta (for example) are necessary. I feel lost…does anyone have any advice?
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rawprincess, I was a college athlete (years ago) so I do understand— it is hard. Even as an adutl, maintaining a fully raw diet is impractical. However, when I travel for work, I try make a grocery store run in advance and be sure to have lots of healthful, raw foods available – raw nuts, seed bars, raisins, dates, etc… to eat/snack on. When dining with the team, can you start with a salad and lots of veggies? (raw or steamed – they will still be better than heavy carb crud.) Can you look for sweet potatoes? Tofu. and things like that? I find that helps me stay on track.
Now, as mentioned elsewhere, I still haven’t figured out how to get enough fuel for training through a completely raw diet… so hopefully someone else will have ideas as well.